However they can become so much more if you dip them into something – like a Mayo Mustard Dipping Sauce. I use Vegenaise Mayo and to me, because I haven’t bought traditional mayo in such a long time, I believe this tastes as creamy and decadent as if made with any homemade mayo.

You can make as little or as much as you want… but here are some proportions for you so you get the drift…

My friend Cristina, who trains for marathons alongside me, lost a lot of weight training for the Chicago Marathon. I haven’t seen her in while and when I complimented her on her new figure she credited chia seeds. I told her I also had chia seeds in my smoothies, but I could not credit any weight loss to it.

Actually, one of my main complaints of adding chia seeds to my morning smoothies was that they got stuck on my teeth sometimes and if I didn’t brush my teeth right away, in a matter of hours I could feel little pieces of gelatinous seeds stuck to my teeth (thank goodness I mostly work from home!!!!!!). Not fun or pretty at all!!!!

She told me her secret was to soak chia seeds overnight in some water and then in the morning, add the juice of ¼ lemon and eat those chia seeds on an empty stomach. Really???

I have been doing it for a few weeks now and I must say that I really like it… before I go to bed I place 1 tbs of chia seeds in a small bowl with some water. I never measure the water… but I swirl it a bit to make sure all the seeds are wet. I leave the bowl on the kitchen counter until the morning, when I just squirt the juice of ¼ lemon and I eat the gelatinized chia seeds with a spoon. I do this especially before I run in the mornings. I then, after I return from running, have a full breakfast and I add other stuff to my morning smoothie – like maca, goji powder, ground flaxseeds, etc.

I have not noticed that much weight loss… but in other trainings for ½ marathons I have gained some weight, and this time around I haven’t and my skinny jeans fit the same way. Before, when I was training, my skinny jeans would not go over my hips, for some reason… so something is indeed working.

Has it ever happened to you… you’re going on a trip and you have tons of fresh stuff in your kitchen and fridge you know will rot by the time you get back home? This happens to me ALL THE TIME!!

I’ve been trying to be better at not going grocery shopping before a trip, especially before a trip that’s over 1 week. But still, even when you try to plan to eat most everything fresh by the time you leave, there might be things here and there you forgot or where unable to eat completely. This was the case with an almost full case of Campari Tomatoes I had bought at Costco. I hate to place them in the fridge because I believe they taste different after being refrigerated.

So I needed to do something so these tomatoes would not go to waste and still be good, edible and better yet tasty to integrate into my back-from-the –trip recipes…

Place tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Massage the tomatoes somewhat to ensure the olive oil, salt and pepper kinda coat the tomatoes evenly.

Make sure tomatoes are arranged cut side up in a single layer. Place a slice or two of garlic inside each tomato, sprinkle liberally with basil leaves and a little sprinkle of turbinado sugar.

Roast in a 375F – 400F oven for about 45 mins to 1 hour. I usually place them, leave them and when they look cooked and a little caramelized. I just turn off the oven and leave them there to cool together with the oven.

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For all you former chocolate lovers who had to put your love aside because of what caffeine does to you… let me introduce you to your new best friend – Carob Syrup.It does not contain caffeine and it’s as delicious as that good ‘ol Hershey’s syrup of the hey days.

If you loved to decorate your vanilla ice cream with some syrup … this carob syrup is for you.

These are super easy to make… I like to use frozen strawberries or berries of any kind because they tend to be consistently sweet whereas sometimes fresh strawberries can sometimes be very tart.

You can use this as a method to sweeten any frozen or fresh fruits to use in any dessert form. It can also be used as a way to preserve very ripe fruit for future use.

MACERATED STRAWBERRIES

4 cups frozen strawberries, chopped
1 cup turbinado sugar

Place chopped strawberries in a large bowl and add sugar. Mix together so the sugar covers most of the strawberry pieces.

Mix them once in a while to ensure sugar is well dissolved in the juices created by the thawing, fruit juices and sugar. Let the fruits macerate for about 2 hours at room temperature to allow the fruit to thaw completely and for the sugar to infuse into the fruit.